(meteorobs) Comet P/2006 T1 (LEVY)

[Skywayinc at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/25/06 4:19:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
md6648 at mclink.it writes:

<< There is too an other question that nobody thought:
 somebody saw anomalous numebr of meteors in or around
 New Year Day in 1985 year or around years?
 Radio amateurs saw something by radio? Somebody ask
 to they? >>

Interesting point, Roberto. 

However . . . since the comet orbit 
was shifted noticeably closer to Earth between 1980 and 1985 
(0.0242 to 0.0077 AU) I'm not sure if any meteors from P/2006 T1 
would have been observable in 1985.  

Although the comet arrived at perihelion in December of that year, I 
personally wouldn't think there would have been enough time for it to 
"lay down" a fresh trail of dust along its new orbit to make for an 
anomalous (to use Roberto's words) meteor display at the very end of 
1985/beginning of 1986.

However . . . at the comet's next three perihelions (1991, 1996, 2001)
the minimum separation between the Earth and comet had
diminished significantly from 1985 . . . the average distance from these 
three years being 0.0033 AU, declining to only 0.0018 AU (167,000 mi./
268,000 km) in 2001!

A couple of weeks ago, Esko Lyytinen indicated that " . . . when this comet's 
orbit gets better derived, then some level meteoroids-trail modeling can 
be made."  It would thus be most interesting to see if any dust trail 
interactions from 1985, or especially 1991, 1996 or 2001 might be 
lurking in our immediate future.

-- joe rao